Miguel Pou Becerra (24 August 1880<ref>Armando Torres Leon. Los Municipios de Puerto Rico y Su Historia y Su Cultura: PONCE, La Perla del Sur. Santurce, Puerto Rico: Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico. Programa Regular de Educación. Programa Editorial. Celeste Benitez, Secretaria de Educación. 1992. p. 149.</ref> – 6 May 1968) was a Puerto Rican oil canvas painter, draftsman, and art professor. Together with José Campeche and Francisco Oller, he has been called "one of Puerto Rico's greatest masters." He was an exponent of the impressionist movement. During his life he exhibited in 64 shows, of which 17 were solo, and won five gold medals. Early years Miguel Pou was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to Juan Bautista Pou Carreras and Margarita Becerra Julbe.Miguel Pou y Becerra. Puerto Rico Encyclopedia. Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades. Retrieved 9 July 2012. Pou took drawing and painting lessons in Ponce. He began drawing with Pedro Clausells and painting with Spaniard Santiago Meana. Schooling and career work After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from the Provincial Institute of Ponce in 1898, he worked as a teacher with the Department of Education.Painting a picture of Puerto Rico's early masters. Ken Johnson. Boston.com News. The Boston Globe. January 3, 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2012. He became a public school teacher at age 20, and assistant superintendent in the Ponce School District in 1900. In 1906, he completed the methodology course in teaching drawing at the Hyannis Normal School (now the Hyannis State Teachers College) in Massachusetts, United States. In 1909, he became director of the Dr. Rafael Pujals School in Ponce. He also married in 1909, to Ana Valldejuly. Ana Valldejuly was an educator. They had one son, Jaime, who became a physician. Art school In 1910 he established the Miguel Pou Academy in Ponce, an art school that stimulated numerous youngsters to develop an interest in art. He directed his school for the next forty years, until 1950. He was very much admired for his artistic works in Puerto Rico. In 1919, he briefly interrupted his presence at the art school to further his studies. In that year he studied in the United States at the Art Students League in New York City and in 1935 at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.Coleccion Reyes-Veray Otto Octavio Reyes Casanova. 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012. Miguel Pou studied painting and drawing intensively and also taught art.Mi Puerto